Klick Korner: 5 Tech and Social Media trends you need to know

Travel PR specialists Klick Communications are back with their most recent update delivering you the latest in travel technology and the ever-changing social media scene. Read on for digital enlightenment.

With so many live and reply broadcasts on Periscope each day, it is becoming increasing difficult to discover new things and find exactly what you’re looking for. Enter three new Periscope features – Reply Highlights, Tweet Embeds and Live Autoplay – that will help users discover more easily and also watch the content they are really interested in.

Replay Highlights
Highlights automatically generates a short trailer for every Periscope broadcast. Catch up on anything you missed and get a better idea of someone you want to follow by receiving highlights from broadcasts automatically.

Tweet Embeds
Launched recently, you’ll now be able to embed Periscopes anywhere on the web by simply embedding the Tweet. Media outlets such as El Pais, Le Parisien, Mashable, Mic, RT, Veja São Paulo and Washington Post are already bringing their stories to life using this feature meaning people are able to help others discover them easier.

Live Autoplays
Broadcasts will now autoplay without sound on Android devices in the Watch Tab and Global Feed. This is designed so you can see what’s happening around the world immediately when you open Periscope. If you find a broadcast interesting, you can simply tap to get the full live experience.

2. Facebook Messenger hits 1 billion

Image Source: TechCrunch

Facebook’s gamble of forcing uses to download their messenger feature has certainly paid off. In spite of initial criticism, Messenger has doubled its user count in 20 months to reach one billion users and has also racked up some impressive stats along the way.
• Each month 17 billion photos are sent
• 1 billion messages pass between people and businesses on a monthly basis
• 380 million stickers and 22 million GIFs are sent each day

No one does network effect quite like Facebook.

3. Snapchat quietly added ‘suggest a friend’ feature

Image Source: TechCrunch

Snapchat has never enforced a list of recommended users to follow nor is it littered with little buttons everywhere begging you to add someone new.

Their new feature enables you to ‘suggest’ someone to follow in a push that could help brands and users get more followers without having to manually suggest names or Snapchat handles.

In order to ‘suggest’ to followers users can tap and hold on someone’s name and then new option appears. Tapping the blue arrow on the right enables you to send the account to other people. Could this be a hit with Snapchat celebs and users alike – time will tell.

4. $4.83 billion to buy Yahoo

Image Source: The Next Web

After a weekend of bidding and rumours, it was confirmed on 25th July that Verizon will be acquiring Yahoo for $4.83 billion.

This follows the $4.4 billion Verizon spent buying AOL in 2015. In 2009 Microsoft acquired Yahoo’s search business, which probably marked the beginning of the end for Yahoo.

Effectively AOL and Yahoo will be merging and will be part of one of the largest portfolios of owned and partnered global brands.

5. Facebook to ‘beam down’ the internet

Image Source: Tech Radar

Facebook’s desire to spread internet connectivity across the globe has reached new heights with its recent tests with floating drones.

The drone name Aquila will ‘beam down’ the internet to areas with no wifi access.

This is just one of a number of initiatives Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook are using to aim to spread the worldwide web to the near 4 billion people around the world with no internet connectivity.